Aesthetix Romulus Signature Upgrade Worth the $3,000 ?

He Luxman does not have a volume control. 

I did did hear the Romulus with both a cheap Sony CD player as a transport and and older CEC belt drive transport. Very slight difference and I would say the CEC made the sound a tad smoother. Not day and night to be sure. 

I suppose if one thinks their Rotel system sounds as good as a well matched $50,000 system, then this hobby is certainly subjective with no absolutes. Yes, subjectivity carries with it the fact that some cannot hear differences, don't even care about differences,  and cannot discern the more subtle musical nuances. All of these realities exist within the subjective territory. 

Meant to type "the" Luxman not "he". Seems you cannot edit once the post is 30 minutes old. 

I bet the Eclipse version is outstanding as I found the simple upgrades I performed to the stock unit to be a nice step up. I just wish these upgrades were more affordable from the manufacturer. 

High end audio pricing has really gotten out of hand and unreasonable IMHO. Reasonable buys can be had on used gear for sure. Some new gear is priced reasonably, but far to much of it is priced ridiculously high in my opinion. Some of it is the small market and demand, some of it is greed, and some of it is desperation in an attempt to survive. 

I wouldn't say the transport in the Romulus is "lousy" just that you might find one that sounds slightly better.

Grannyring your right the prices for audio have gone up to the roof tops. It appears that the high end market starts at 10,000.00. Being a shrinking market they feel they rather sell a few than a lot at cheaper prices.